praying for one another

sunday night and monday night were my last small group and my last bsf for the summer. both were marked by the typical end of the session looking back and sharing. interestingly enough, even though both had different themes (1 corinthians and john, respectively) both nights really ended up focusing/reflecting on prayer and praying for one another.

every sunday evening in my small group we have the opportunity to share our requests with the and someone is picked at random to pray for each request. however, we do not serve a random God. i am amazed at how many times the person praying ends up being in a very similar situation to the one they're praying for or just has the perfect words of comfort to share. what a blessing to be able to bring your requests to some of your closes friends and let them share the burden of life with you. a while back i was driving and freaking out about something and right then called my friend rachel who prayed for me over the phone. instantly, i felt better. we do not do this often enough. as christians, praying for one another, sharing burdens, comforting one another is something we are told to do, but it is also something we should count as a privilege. how blessed i am to have such an amazing group of friends to laugh with to cry with and to just share life with.


monday evenings are done a little differently. we share our requests throughout the week with our leader who then shares them with the group monday nights and we're responsible for praying for the list throughout the week. how great it is to know that people are praying for you all week. i was looking back on the 33 weeks of bsf and realized that my prayer request the first week was to be able to make it on time on monday nights. if you remember, when bsf started i was working on the mainframe project and catching the 5:25 train into work in the mornings and the 7:20 train home most nights. i was worried that i would not be able to keep my commitment to bsf. however, looking back, there was not a single monday where i had to miss class because of work. that is the power of prayer. most women had very similar stories of answered prayers throughout the year. God doesn't care how simple or how seemingly small our requests are. he wants us to bring everything before him. look back at the book of john. in addition to the miracles such as raising lazarus from the dead, jesus is also the king of the incredibly simple. mary asked for wine. the disciples got fish. jesus provided the basics. he loves giving us things. all we have to do is ask. i know i'm one of those people who often thinks my prayer requests aren't important enough to get mentioned. however, as my friend jamie pointed out, why not? why not let fifteen women pray for me throughout the week for whatever it may be, even if it is just a free schedule on monday nights?

anyways... i guess my point is: pray for one another. find out your friends' burdens and bring them before the Lord. There is power in prayer and nothing is too big or too small for our God.